The Juxtaposition of Beauty and Brutality in Solomon Northup’s “Twelve Years a Slave”

During an interview with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Steve McQueen commented on the juxtaposition between beauty and horror in his film adaptation of Twelve Years a Slave (2013). I have written about this before in regards to the scene where Tibeats attempts to lynch Nortup. Here, I want to expand upon that discussion some more, especially after rereading and teaching Northup’s narrative a few years ago. When I taught it last time, I noticed specific passages that present the landscape of central and south Louisiana as beautiful while the specter of slavery and brutality lurks just beneath the surface.

Speaking with McQueen in 2013, Gates asked the director to “[t]alk about the tension between portraying the South as beautiful and conveying the horrors of slavery.” McQueen responded by saying that audiences commented on the beauty of the film, something I noticed the first time I watched it. He says, “People have said to me ‘It’s so beautiful,’ and that’s because it is so beautiful. Horrific things happen in beautiful places. I can’t put a filter on life. Life is perverse.”